A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court gave the Centre three months to decide the Tamil Nadu government’s proposal made in 2014 to remit the sentences of seven life-term convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
The apex court, on Tuesday, put the case on hold and wait till the Centre took a call.
The letter, which dates back to February 19, 2014, spurred the Centre to move the Supreme Court. It triggered the question whether a State could unilaterally remit life sentence in a case investigated by a central agency like the CBI, as in this case.
On December 2, 2015, a five-judge Constitution Bench led by then Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu interpreted the law to hold that States cannot unilaterally remit the sentences of life convicts in cases investigated by a Central agency under a Central law.
The Constitution Bench, however, left the factual question of whether the seven convicts deserve remission or not to a three-judge Bench.
A three-judge Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, A.M. Sapre and Navin Sinha decided that since the State’s letter of 2014 was still pending with the Centre, the latter should now take a decision.
“You take a decision. That itself will decide the matter,” Justice Gogoi orally addressed Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand.
Section 435
The Constitution Bench, speaking through Justice F.M.I. Kalifulla, had interpreted Section 435 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which dealt with remissions of life convicts.
The majority judgement of the Constitution Bench said the word “consultation” in the provision actually meant “concurrence.” The Bench had ruled that consultation with the Centre in heinous cases should not be an empty formality as national interest is at stake.
In a 200-page majority judgment, Justice Kalifulla repeatedly made scathing references about the convicts but stopped short of deciding the merits of the Tamil Nadu government’s request for remission.
Now, the tri-judge Bench would have to decide the convicts’ remission independently without being slightly influenced by the negative remarks made by the Constitution Bench.
The apex court had on February 20, 2014 stayed the Tamil Nadu government’s move to release three convicts — Murugan, Santhan and Arivu — whose death sentences were commuted to life term by it on February 18 in the case.
It had later on stayed release of four other convicts — Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran — in the case, saying there were procedural lapses on the part of the State government.
